


Block by Block: How to Tell Your Past Self to Save His Future

by Axelerate13



Category: How I Met Your Mother
Genre: Ending Fix, F/M, Fix-It, Post-Series, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-20
Updated: 2014-07-20
Packaged: 2018-02-09 15:53:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1988856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Axelerate13/pseuds/Axelerate13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>There were rules to time travel. You can’t talk to your past self, but you can interact however else you want. The talking rule is more because if you do, your past self just won’t remember the event. Ted Mosby didn’t need to talk to tell his past self exactly what needed to be done. He just needed a few blocks and the strong urge to save the mother of his children.</em>
</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>Originally posted to Tumblr <a href="http://tmblr.co/ZpB7Ku1BnyvjJ">here</a> on April 1st, 2014.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Block by Block: How to Tell Your Past Self to Save His Future

There were rules to time travel. You can’t talk to your past self, but you can interact however else you want. The talking rule is more because if you do, your past self just won’t remember the event. Ted Mosby didn’t need to talk to tell his past self exactly what needed to be done. He just needed a few blocks and the strong urge to save the mother of his children.

He’d tried dating Robin again after six long years of mourning Tracy’s death. It had worked out as well as it had before. While they made great friends, their lives had diverged too greatly, and the love they shared was no longer of the romantic sort. At that point, he went to Marshall and asked for access to the time travel technology the government totally had.

Justice Marshall Eriksen allowed it. He did, however, tell Lily, who told Robin and Barney, and soon all five members of the group decided that if Ted was going to change the past—and thereby alter their present—then they were all going to make their presents better. So as their gang of five, one last time, they decided to go on one last adventure together and meet up at their bar when they were done.

Ted didn’t particularly care what they chose to do, not when his goal was in sight. They got to the past and made their way from DC, where the machine was kept, to his and Tracy’s house outside New York City. It was the first stop they got to. With three tight hugs and one awkward smile, Ted watched them drive into the city.

His key was weathered by time and took a breath-stopping moment to fit into the lock. It did fit, as well as he and Tracy fit together. …Maybe not that well. Looking at the photographs on the wall, he smiled. It had been so long since he’d seen pictures of Tracy looking that healthy. Smiling that sincerely. And longer still since he’d heard the laughter of young children, like he heard from the living room. He walked over and leaned again the door frame for support.

Penny and Luke. Still young, still innocent of the world’s cruelties, sat playing with blocks. In front of them, facing away from him, was a man a decade and a half younger than him. He wondered, in the way that only Ted Mosby can wonder, that long and ponderous and over-thought-out way, how to introduce himself to…well, to himself.

He didn’t need to wonder so much. His younger self saw his children’s eyes focus on something behind him and turned around, then blinked and said, “Future me?”

Of course. It wasn’t like this was the first weird thing he’d dealt with. Not after the doppelgangers and everything Barney ever did. He himself nodded, walking over to the blocks. Younger Ted kept an eye on him and a hand stretched out towards his children, but it was unneeded. The older Ted slowly formed words with the blocks. He left each word intact until the younger him nodded, then he rearranged them into the next. 

DRIVE TRACY TO THE DOCTOR. DO NOT LET HER GO ALONE.

The younger Ted’s eyes widened and panic set in, but before he could babble on about his worries, the older Ted shook his head.

SHE WOULD GET DISTRACTED BY THE PARADE.

"Parade?" The younger Ted looked confused, until he gasped. "Oh right! There’s a robot appreciation parade downtown today! She would stop to watch that, even in the car!"

SHE NEEDS TO MAKE THE APOINTMENT.

"You know, older me, there are two Ps in ‘appointment’."

Older Ted glared and gestured wildly at the blocks.

"…Oh, there’s only one P, isn’t there? Funny story, Penny was playing with the other P when-"

SHUT UP.

That was punctuated by throwing a block at the younger Ted.

"Ow! That smarts! ….Hey, this block has a bird on it. Is this about Robi-"

The blocks were made of wood. Which is why it was easy for the older Ted to grab the B block with the bird on it from his past self and light it on fire.

"Hey!!"

STOP LOOKING FOR SIGNS. LOVE PENNY. LOVE LUKE. LOVE TRACY.

"Hey…." This repetition was softer, less shocked, more sad. "Are you crying?"

THE DOCTOR.

"What’s so impor- Okay, okay, I get it! Seriously, stop lighting blocks on fire! When did I become a pyro anyway?"

"Ted?"

Both Teds froze. Once Tracy’s footsteps were heard, the younger Ted leapt to his feet. “Yes?”

"Are you talking to the TV again?"

It was only a moment between when the younger Ted took his eyes off his older self to watch Tracy enter the room and when he glanced back down to where he was, but in that time span, the older Ted was gone. The charred blocks had disappeared with him. The remaining ones…

"Oh….Ted…!"

Tracy walked over to him and stood in the middle of the heart the blocks formed. “Ted, the blocks are for the kids, you know.”

Ted looked at Tracy. The mother of his children and, quite certainly, the love of his life. “I know. You know what else? How about we all go into the city? I’ll watch the kids while you’re at your doctor’s appointment then we’ll all go visit the cousins!”

Tracy laughed, a sound more lovely than even his children’s giggles. “Sounds like you’ve got the whole day planned out.”

Ted shook his head. “I’ve got a lot more than that planned out. Just you wait and see.”

"Oh, I’m looking forward to it!"

In their backyard, the older Ted pulled himself, slowly, painfully, away from the wall of the house. Away from Tracy’s voice. He headed around the front and began to walk down the road. The charred blocks slipped from quickly-fading hands, but Ted knew he could make it to the bar one last time. 

He only wished his Tracy would be there waiting for him. He knew, though, that she no longer had too long to wait.


End file.
